RE: All the problems with Christianity
November 12, 2013 at 1:42 pm
(This post was last modified: November 12, 2013 at 1:49 pm by Tonus.)
(November 12, 2013 at 12:34 pm)ronedee Wrote: Maybe you are looking at it backwards?Looking at it backwards (from my explanation above) would leave us with the view that faith is blind by definition. The child in my example would believe that his father was bringing home the toy even though there was no evidence to believe such, or even evidence to the contrary (such as the father's adamant insistence that he would not purchase it). In that example, his faith would seem misplaced.
If god revealed himself to a person in a direct manner, then the faith isn't blind. That person may have trouble convincing others that his personal revelation is genuine; mental institutions no doubt have hosted their share of Napoleons over the ages. Others have had no trouble convincing people that they heard voices, but I suspect that few people believe that David Berkowitz was heeding a divine call when he acted on his personal revelation.
As for what god might want from us, I suppose that if he was to provide a personal revelation, it would be useful to include that information along with the bright lights and dancing angels.
(November 12, 2013 at 12:34 pm)ronedee Wrote: What could a father possibly want his unempowered "child" to do for him? Hmmmmm...
Need him? Obey him? Respect him? Trust him? Love him?
I wanted to address this separately because it brought to mind a question that is probably more philosophical than anything else. That is to say, I don't know if there is a wrong or right answer, or what it might mean.
What can I "do for him"? What happens to god if I do not demonstrate a need for him? If I do not obey him? Or respect, trust, or love him? Is he harmed in any real sense? Or is it more the sense of sadness like we would feel if someone bumped the tower we were building from playing cards just before we added the finishing touches?
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
